Home is Where the Heart Is
by Stardust and Lullabies
Summary: After returning to Earth, the Voyager crew soon learn that their journey is nowhere near finished as they face the task of re-integrating back into Earth's society while facing the challenges of meeting loved ones who have moved on with their lives. No one said it would be easy.


Chapter One

Captain Janeway sat on her chair of the past seven years, emotions running through her at a frightening speed. She had been trying to get her crew home for seven long years and here they were, it was hard to process one filled with many trials and tribulations, deaths and births, happy times and sad times but she wouldn't have traded it for the world. That wasn't to say she didn't wish some things hadn't happened – the deaths of her crew members for a start but Voyager was home, the crew was her family and she couldn't imagine doing this without a finer crew.

"We did it," she said still in shock as they came bursting out of the Borg Transport cube to be faced by nearly thirty Starfleet ships. Not that she blamed them the thought of anything Borg approaching Earth would be enough to scare them into reacting the way that they did. Nonetheless it was a more than welcome site to her and she was positive the rest of the Voyager family too.

"We're being hailed," Ensign Kim informed her.

"On screen," she replied. "Sorry to surprise you," she continued once the hail had been accepted. There on the view screen was Admiral Paris, Reginald Barclay and one other Starfleet officer. "Next time we'll call ahead," she added lightly.

"Welcome back," Admiral Paris murmured, surprise clearly in his tone. Admiral Paris had always been a father like figure to her, he was her mentor, the one who guided her through her last year at the Academy and then through her first few missions as an Ensign. Even afterwards she turned to him for advice, the two of them had gone through a lot together on her first assignment, the USS Icarus. They had been captured by the Cardassian's and taken to one of their prisons. Thankfully, they were rescued by some of the Rangers that had been stationed aboard the ship due to the covert operations part of their mission.

"It's good to be here," she Janeway replied truthfully. While she had fought for so long to return a part of her, a tiny part that she refused to admit existed was aware that it might have been impossible to see Earth again.

"How did you…" Paris trailed off, the shock and surprise evident in his voice which surprised her, he was usually so collected.

"It will all be in my report, Sir," she informed him, managing to keep a straight face as she did so.

"I look forward to it," Paris replied before the hail was terminated.

"Thanks for your help Admiral Janeway," she murmured quietly to herself as a soft prayer.

"Sickbay to the bridge," the Doctor's voice came over the comm system them. In the background they could all hear the child's cry, "There's someone here who wants to meet you." At that, Kathryn couldn't help but smile brightly. The sound of the child combined with their return, it was almost too much to her. After allowing Tom to go down to the ships Sickbay to join his wife and newborn child, she retreated to her Ready Room before she lost control of her emotions in front of her crew. No matter what the situation was, even this one, showing emotion in front of them was not something she would ever do.

From there, the next few hours flew by at a startling rate. Even hours later, Kathryn was having trouble coming to terms with the fact that they were back in the Alpha Quadrant, soon to be back in contact with their families, in person, not just via messages sent thousands of light years. Since retiring to the ready room, she had been in contact with Starfleet Headquarters and had received orders on how they were to proceed from here.

The fact that Voyager was so damaged – hull breaches on various decks, the warp core was offline and a lot of systems were running on backup power meant that they were heading towards Earth at an incredibly low speed. Perhaps it wasn't the way she had imagined their returned would be like but it was better than nothing.

In the mean time she was in the process of gathering information that Headquarters had requested as well as compiling her report for Starfleet on their return. Not only that but she was trying to figure out what they were planning to do with the Maquis and Equinox crews. To her they were members of Voyager's crew but despite being in contact with Starfleet for the past two years and submitting some of their reports, especially those from the earlier years there was still a lot of information that they had still to receive. From what she had gathered they had barely looked at the information Voyager had previously transmitted to them, believing that they would have many more years in which to do so. Now they would be run off their feet as much as she would be, if not more so.

Still she would do all that she could in her power to make this as easy on them, her crew and herself as possible. While she hadn't vocalised her promise to anyone, she was aware that her crew knew she would do anything in her power to get the Maquis and Equinox members free and rewarded for their roles played upon the ship. Especially the Maquis as they had been there from the beginning of their journey. She would not sit idly by and see them punished, they deserved the recognition for all that they had done, while they weren't officially members of Starfleet they were as close as they could be with being so far from Starfleet itself.

She just prayed that Headquarters would see that too, that all of this wasn't in vain.

Standing she moved towards the replicator and ordered herself a coffee before moving towards the window of her ready room. Sitting on the sofa, she stared out as the familiar stars moved passed her, her heart, warming with joy and happiness of being home, as they moved closer towards Earth. She truly could not wait to step foot upon Earth again, to see her mother and sister in person and to finally have time to be herself and not Captain Janeway.

Her musings were interrupted by the chime ringing. "Come in!" she called to whoever was standing there. She had to wonder who it could be, the list of people who would visit her in the Ready Room uninvited was small and she assumed many would be busy preparing for their return – like she should be doing herself.

"Captain?" came a quiet voice that she immediately recognised.

"Naomi," she replied with a smile. "What can I do for you?" she asked the young girl, patting the couch next to her. Naomi was one of the bright spots in all that happened aboard the ship and Kathryn would be fooling everyone, especially her if she didn't admit that Naomi held a special place in her heart.

"I'm scared," Naomi admitted softly as she sat on the couch, pulling her legs up to her chin.

"Oh sweetie," Kathryn said reaching out to hug the young girl. "Why are you scared?"

"I don't want to go to Earth, I don't want to leave Voyager," Naomi admitted to her.

Kathryn felt like an idiot then, she hadn't even thought about what the young girl would be going through. Having been on Voyager she had grown up on the ship and it was her home, she hadn't even seen Earth before. Yes she had heard plenty of stories about it and seen pictures but to her Voyager was her home and Kathryn truthfully didn't blame the young girl for not wanting to leave, a part of her that she was trying to ignore didn't want to leave the ship no matter how much she wanted to return to Earth and see her family again. "Naomi, look at me," she said softly as the young girl glanced down to her knees. "I understand why you feel that way but I promise you, we won't leave you alone, we'll all be there for each other no matter what. I'm positive you'll love Earth and don't you want to meet you father too?" she asked her softly.

"What happens if he doesn't want me?" Naomi asked her softly climbing into the captain's lap as she did so and wrapping her arms around her.

"I don't see why he wouldn't, you've received letters from him, you're an amazing girl and you are his daughter. He would be very dumb not to and your father is far from dumb," Kathryn told Naomi, hugging her as she did so.

"Promise?" Naomi asked looking up at her with wide eyes that made Kathryn's heart break.

"Promise," she told the young girl truthfully. "Now how about you go find your Mom? I'll come by later and see how you are going," she told her giving the girl another hug.

"Okay," Naomi said looking happier than she did before. "Bye Captain!" she said hugging her before bouncing out of the Ready Room leaving Kathryn smiling at the young girl as she did so. From there Kathryn returned to her work, slowly trudging her way through the information to finish compiling the reports to send off. By the end of the night she had done half of those as well as the report on their return but there was still so much to go she thought it would never end but it had to – Starfleet needed the information as soon as possible and then she was free a part from the debriefings.

Kathryn slept fitfully that night which wasn't surprising, all of her life she had been an insomniac and being out here in the Delta Quadrant had made it all the worst with how she was often up for days at a time due to attacks and the like. That or she was only getting a couple of hours sleep due to incidents or even just her inability to sleep all night long, the nights she did sleep were a blessing in disguise and far too few. She actually once joked to Chakotay that she could count the number of full, relaxing sleeps she had while in the Delta Quadrant on one hand and that was far too close to the truth for her comfort. That night her mind would not quiet down and when she finally managed to get to sleep she was plagued by nightmares of her crew murdered, imprisoned and her family torn apart. They were plagued by the people of the Federation, discriminated against and watched as the world they tried so hard to return to fell apart around them, rejecting them as they went.

To say she was glad to awaken, even if it was only after three hours sleep was a severe understatement. Rising, she decided she might as well return to work, she wasn't going to get any more sleep that night after all. After soaking in a real shower compared to a sonic one – she had always preferred real water as it was, she dressed and made her way to the mess hall to see if she could find something to eat before retiring to her ready room.

She had been there for over five hours and had finally nearly finished everything she had supposed to do – thankfully they had sent through most of their information when they had made contact with Starfleet thanks to Reginald Barclay the previous year which made this job a lot easier for her and the crew, they had enough problems as it was.

For the rest of the day she wondered the ship, talking to her crew members, her unofficial family. As she did so she fully understood what Naomi meant about not wanting to leave Voyager, no matter how much Kathryn wanted to see her mother and sister again these people were family and had gone through so much with her that she couldn't begin to imagine not being with them all day, seven days a week.


End file.
